“Come Sing a Song with Me”

This engaging song by Carolyn McDade came to mind this morning and I couldn’t resist the invitation. Come sing a song with me, come sing a song with me, that I might know your mind. And the chorus goes on: And I’ll bring you hope when hope is hard to find, and I’ll bring a song of love and a rose in the winter time. But why today, on a rainy day, why this morning? I just woke up with my head full of music following last night’s first rehearsal of The Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus for the 2015-2016 season. And what a season it will be, with The Wizardry of Worthington coming this November, Mozart’s Requiem in February at the Winspear Centre, and at Carnegie Hall in March, and finally in May, a concert entitled Our Home and Native Land.

No, we will not be singing Carolyn’s song, but singing last night gave me hope, and singing in itself was  “a song of love”. Since my retirement, just about 20 years ago now, singing, like flower arranging, has become an important part of my life. After moving to Kelowna, I immediately joined the Okanagan University College Choir under the direction of Leroy Wiens. The choir has a long history and and was renamed Kelowna Community Chorus. Since returning to Edmonton a couple of years ago I have joined both Harmonia and  the Edmonton Metro Chorus. All was well until a number of consecutive lengthy colds left me voiceless and a full year without singing. I was sad, of course, and hopeless until I started working with David Wilson who taught me how to breathe again. If you want to sing, you need to breathe, what a surprise! Anyway, the long and the short of it is that it is working and I can sing again. The first test was this summer at the Singspiration week long camp and concert, then rejoining Harmonia last Tuesday, and again last night when David Garber led us through a first reading of The Wizardry of Worthington. Rejoice, rejoice.

The first song that came to mind this morning was Un canadien errant d’Antoine Gérin Lajoie, who wrote the poem in 1842, at age 18, setting it to a folklore tune of his days. I was singing the song last night and this morning again and just loved it, but I won’t abuse your kindness, instead I offer you Ian and Sylvia Tyson‘s rendering.